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Down and Roti at Warung Mini

Some foods are just fun to order — nasi rames goreng, roti kerrie kip, broodje pom (you had to read that last one twice, didn’t you?). You live in Amsterdam long enough and you don’t even think twice about putting in an order for baka bana. But if you need a bami fix anywhere else in the world (er, except Surinaam or Indonesia), you’re sh*t out of luck. You have no idea how good you have it!

One of the great delights of Amsterdam cuisine is the seemingly unlimited access to ethnic food that is otherwise largely unknown in other countries. So step aside, stampotje. When we crave “Dutch food”, what we’re really craving is thick, decadently creamy peanut sauce – so good you’ll dip anything into it (a drumstick, a fried banana, your finger). We also crave that tantalizingly spicy curry chicken, folded into a soft, flaky roti cornmeal wrap you can bend into any position imaginable (ahem). And we sometimes even crave pom, even though we have no idea what it is exactly (Our Surinamese sources tell us that “pom” comes from “pomtajer”, a root vegetable sort of similar to taro and grown locally in Surinam. So, um, that explains it).

Of course, there are countless Surinamese take-out shops all over the city. Blink and you might miss a styrofoam box of nasi goreng. But when we want our quick Indo-Surinamese fix and we actually want it GOOD? There’s no question. We head over to Warung Mini on Ceinturbaan.

So thank you, Amsterdam — for the sate, the stroopwafels, pepernotjes and appletaart (more on that later). But above all, thank you for the roti kip at Warung Mini!